The Three Musketeerz

[GooRoo]

WalkingBear said:

Still trapped at the same place....can't seem to shoot my shovelz more than two rowz...Gaby mentioned earlier (post #54) that postitioning of the spongegunz was crucial...anyone remember how to get through this spot? Thanks.

Position your SpongeGun Gruntz at the extreme endz of the Arrowz sub-puzzle, and alwayz aim at the last Arrow (pointing to a wall, or other hazard) and fire when your Shovel Grunt is four Arrowz away ... the sponge will arrive when the Grunt does, pushing him inward. Where the Shovel Grunt is moving away from the SpongeGun Grunt, it is necessary to aim at the next-to-the-last Arrow, so that the Grunt is pushed on the diagonal onto the next inner line of Arrowz.

[WalkingBear]

Oh, bother....lookz like some target practice! Thanks, GooRoo........

[WalkingBear]

Well, I had to do a total restart...now I am trying to kill the three sword gruntz with only my sword and a shieldz, and one tiny can of zap cola...knowing that my swordz needz nearly full health to make it across the spikez which are just next door...oh bother........

[WalkingBear]

Ok, I am finally at the very end....I have a wingz, a springz, and a toobz in the subpuzzle just to the right of the fort....so close....

My springz jumpz and getz the warpstone after stepping on the BTS to the southwest. Now, wingz must fly to the other cornerz and the BOTS...although the walkthrough is clear about where to go and when, I know that wingz' flightspan is limited...I can do everything except get back from getting the wand! I have practiced several different wayz, but seem to be one short of getting back to join the otherz....

Any help here? Flight strategy? Thanks!

[GooRoo]

WalkingBear said:

Ok, I am finally at the very end....I have a wingz, a springz, and a toobz in the subpuzzle just to the right of the fort....so close....

My springz jumpz and getz the warpstone after stepping on the BTS to the southwest. Now, wingz must fly to the other cornerz and the BOTS...although the walkthrough is clear about where to go and when, I know that wingz' flightspan is limited...I can do everything except get back from getting the wand! I have practiced several different wayz, but seem to be one short of getting back to join the otherz....

Any help here? Flight strategy? Thanks!

I presume that the part of the walkthroughyou are in (and having the problem is:

"The springz jumps across the landings (do not use the breakable blocks) and hits the blue switch in the lower left corner. He then goes to the center area and picks up the warpstone. The wingz flies across the landings and moves to the blue switch at the upper right. Move the warpstone across the bridge to the center block. The wingz now flies south to the black 1 switch and then walks to the landing at the lower right. Fly to the blue switch and move the warpstone grunt back to join the toobz. Now fly back across to the southeast landing. Fly to get the magic wand and join the other 2 gruntz."

It has been far too long since I played this CL ... I don't remember much about it any more. With the amount of time it takez to play through the puzzle to the point where you are (and the frustrationz that Guenter was capable of producing ... even WITH a walkthrough!), I doubt that I will be much help. Several of Guenter's CLz require PICTUREZ, instead of mere wordz to describe his Wingz routez.

[WalkingBear]

No worries! I finally got it....at the end of wingz flight, instead of walking to get the wand, he fliez instead, and then walkz back!
It is another PERFECT! in only 115:56! Whew~!

[GooRoo]

I knew you could do it! But Guenter made you work for it, didn't he!?!

[WalkingBear]

He most certainly did, Ollie! Now on to Decoy Ahoy! and Knightz Tour (without cheating).............

[GooRoo]

This CL does not have an image of the Statz Page showing a "PERFECT!" result, so I am going to be busy for quite some time re-solving it. I will take breakz (probably out of pure frustration!) from time to time, and will be checking in here for anything that requirez my attention. But (with other thingz I have scheduled) I will probably not be very active until some time Wednesday (this being Monday, early afternoon, for me).

[GooRoo]

Well, I am at the point where I have a Toob Grunt standing on one PMGS , a Springz Grunt standing two tilez away from a YTS (which will release a Rolling SnowBall ) with a Spikez in the middle, and a PMGS three tilez south. Gauntletz is carrying a Beach Ball , standing on the west side of a north/south corridor (where another RSB is moving rapidly) with an enemy Grunt on the east side, and a Brick preventing him from moving toward Gauntletz. And that is where I am stopping for the night!

I have to break the Brick and stand in its place while the enemy Grunt whackz me, until I can retreat into the room on the west side, go south (with the enemy Grunt chasing me), and swing north past the PMGS , and hand the enemy Grunt the Beach Ball . Then I have to make it across the corridor into the room where the enemy Grunt was trapped, to stand on the last PMGS there, while Springz hitz the YTS and hopz back to stand on his PMGS .

You see, when the RSB is released, it has to cross over a (lowered) PP (held down by four Gruntz on PMGSz ) and over a GTS which will raise a GP to break the RSB in the corridor my Gruntz have to pass through. So Toob , Springz and Gauntletz cannot enter the corridor until the RSB is broken. Nasty timing, this!

Then the real adrenaline pump beginz ... when I have to maneuver all three Gruntz past the (lowered) BPz before the RSB crossez the BOTS , raising them to BPz . And do all of this while disposing of that pesky enemy Grunt!

I'm sure you can see why I am not about to attempt that this late in the evening. I need a good night's sleep and a clear head, to get through this part!

[GooRoo]

Well, I just had the unhappy experience of bringing the Warpstone to the King after 2 hours and twenty minutez on the game timer ... and close to four dayz of the free time I had available(!) only to discover that I only picked up 39 out of 40 Coinz. So no "PERFECT!" score for me. I have uploaded my miserable result to my web host, so there is a screen image of the Statz Page ... I don't know when (or if!) I will be able to re-play it again.

The good newz is, I am now working on an HTML version of IdleAl's walkthrough, with inventoriez of Toolz, Toyz, PowerUpz, Coinz, Megaphonez, Secretz, et cetera ... so noone else need suffer the same fate I just suffered. Also, I will add text for the walkthrough on how I solved several of the problem areaz ... getting Gauntletz, Springz and Toobz across the pool of water with relatively good health; getting past the next tight timing puzzle, without turning the enemy Shield Grunt into Goo; how the Bricklayer (who earnz a Shovel) outwitz two enemy Sword Gruntz and four enemy SuicideBomber Gruntz. I will try to even make a screen grab of the sub-puzzlez before the action beginz to support the text ... with drawn-in elementz to show 'how-to'.

All of this is by way of explaining why I may somewhat less responsive on the Forum for the next few dayz. Working on the walkthrough, and (maybe) re-playing the CL in order to do screen grabs.

Edit: After going through the CL with the Gruntz Level Editor, I still have only found 39 Coinz! (Small wonder that I missed it while trying to solve the puzzle!) I know I will find that elusive 40^th Coin, but I went on to working on the inventory of Toolz, and am about two-thirdz done with that portion of the HTML walkthrough. (There is one PowerUp, and I don't recall what it was ... but I did find it!)

Edit: #2 The HTML walkthrough link now listz all 40 Coinz, the PowerUp (Conversion ... how could I have forgotten that!), the Warp letterz (with imagez!) and a partial list of the Toolz (through CheckPoint #9). (I just had to take a break, both for lunch, and because my left hand was getting tired from all of the Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V activity. )

Edit: #3 The Toolz and Secretz componentz are now complete. Tomorrow I begin working on Megaphonez, the Outline and the actual walkthrough text (in that order). I have a fairly busy day scheduled with non-Gruntz thingz, though, so I don't think I will get to the walkthrough until late Sunday evening (if then). (I may try to see if I have a SAVE late in the puzzle that will allow me to acquire that 40^th Coin, so I may report a "PERFECT!" score.)

[BattlezM]

admin said:

Unlike the "walk diagonally through pyramidz as they are being raised" bug, I see very little use for taking advantage of the "shoot a Grunt past a hill barrier". (Except that it has been so widely used, I would not have used the pyramidz 'bug' myself ... but the damage had already been done.)

I'm putting the shoot a grunt past the hill barrier idea into converting kitchen....

[kellirn]

Well, I just don't get it!!!!
I'm at the part where there are the 2 corridors with rolling balls on each side, break one and the other one starts. Have to get your 3 gruntz (gauntlet, springz, and toobz) past the BP before they go up. GooRoo called it a "horse race" much earlier in this thread.
I have tried all the suggestions in this thread, multiple, multiple times. I can barley get the shield grunt killed and the BPz are up
Are there any other suggestions?

[kellirn]

OK, I managed to get through that last part without any help.... is there anybody out there???
Now I'm at the part where the shovelz has to get past the enemy sword and gauntlet (while they are going after our gauntlet and bootz) right before the conversion power-up. I am SOOO close, The first enemy that gets to me falls into the hole and I know that I need them both.
Any suggestions to cut a tiny bit of time off? I've been trying since yesterday after reading through this thread.
GooRoo said something about the shovel going in a circular? motion? not sure what that means.

[GooRoo]

It has been a very long time since I last (re-)played this CL in order to answer questionz, and it is very difficult to get to the point after the "horse race" against the two Rolling Rockz. I will have to take a look at the CL map in order to get some idea of where you are, and how to continue. I have three other CLz that I am trying to verify, so it may be a while before I am able to look at "The Three Musketeers".

[kellirn]

GooRoo..... I don't know if you still have this game on your "to do" list to try and help me out. So, I wanted to let you know that I gave up on it for a while than came back to it and managed, somehow!!, to finish with a PERFECT!!
So if it was on your list you can cross it off!
Thanks anyway

[GooRoo]

I am going through Guenter's Custom Levelz, and correcting the walk-throughz (still refer to Neron Hosting filez ) and bringing them up-to-date. On this one, I still have:

• About (currently 'cloned' from "Waterworld")
  
• Secretz (currently 'cloned' from "Waterworld")
  
• Walkthrough (currently )
  
• WarpLetterz (currently 'cloned' from "Waterworld")
  

to do.

Here is the Outline of the walk-through (complete through section 26).

Perhapz just the Coinz, Megaphonez, Powerupz, Secretz, Toolz, Toyz and WarpLetterz will be enough (to start with) for new solverz to get through this tough puzzle.

IMHO, the "Three Musketeers, Four (Purple Multi-Grunt) Switchez" mini-puzzle is the most difficult puzzle that has ever been created ... that doez not depend solely on extremely tight timing.

[GooRoo]

I am beginning the proof-reading phase of the walk-through on this CL. In its current form, there are 43 pagez for my printer, and there are 13 pagez remaining to be printed! Originally it had nothing but imagez, without supporting text, such as "cupcake", so what the solver read was "... breakz the [image] and ...". Now that same line readz " ... breakz the cupcake and ...". Also, all of the referencez are now relative, rather than explicit, so if anything ever happenz and we lose GoDaddy, everything (for this CL, at least) can just be uploaded to the new web host, and will work perfectly ... immediately!

That doesn't mean that there wouldn't be problemz in this Forum, since the referencez are ALL explicit here. I could possibly put something in the " word list" that would replace all instancez of "gooroosgruntz.info" with the new domain name that replacez it ... and the Forum would quickly look correct.

[Pinkgoo]

Like all of Guenter's levels, I do a little victory dance in my mind when I get a PERFECT! on one of his levelz. Really enjoyed this one.

[Sheroan]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PERFECT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! UFFFFFFFFFFFFFF